Mapping the Joe Arpaio vote

12/21/12 10:39 PM EST

Joe Arpaio, the longtime Maricopa County sheriff whose tough illegal immigration enforcement tactics have won him a national following on the right, won reelection in November to his sixth term.

But the Arizona Republican’s polarizing style and opposition from the growing Hispanic community continue to take a toll on his local popularity, leading to his weakest performance ever — Arpaio won just 50.7 percent of the vote.

In an analysis, the Arizona Capitol Times maps out of his reelection win and finds that the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America” struggled in some GOP strongholds:

Arpaio lost geographically distinct, Republican-leaning pockets throughout the county, especially among upper-middle class suburbanites closer to the Democratic leaning metro center of the Valley, and in Republican-leaning areas that also have higher than average minority composition, both areas where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney fared better.

And the disparity between support in the outer ring of the county and the strong vote against Arpaio in the central part of the county is stark. Central and west Phoenix gave him less than 20 percent of the vote, while the most rural outer areas gave him more than 70 percent support.